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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26529514">For The Best</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikazuki_Mitsukai/pseuds/Mikazuki_Mitsukai'>Mikazuki_Mitsukai</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Break Up Talk, Canon - Anime, Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Hurt, Kikyou is only mentioned, the right choice is the hard choice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:28:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>972</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26529514</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikazuki_Mitsukai/pseuds/Mikazuki_Mitsukai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A different take on Episode 48, the way I thought it should go.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, InuYasha/Kikyou (InuYasha)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>For The Best</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It's made minutes before midnight without editing or second reading with the help of a cup of instant coffee. Which is no excuse. But...</p><p>Still no excuse... But...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The leaves and branches above sways in the rhythm of the wind, like green waves and brown streaks that clash against each other. From between them, sunlight peeks in small beams and large bursts. It is overall a very pleasant and beautiful day, though Kagome wonders whether it calms down her heart or makes it clench harder instead.</p><p>She just can’t tell.</p><p>But she felt, rather than hear, bare footsteps stopping in muted surprise a little way to her side. Her presence was unexpected indeed.</p><p>Kagome climbed up the well with resolve heavy in heart. It must not fail her now, she won’t allow it. So, she turns her face towards Inuyasha with a small, if a little sad, smile.</p><p>“While I was back over there, I gave it a lot of thought,” she begins. “About you, Kikyo, and me.”</p><p>“Kagome, I…”</p><p>“I understand.” Kagome cuts him off. She can’t look him in the eyes.“I understand how you feel. So I thought I couldn’t stay here with you.”</p><p>“Kagome…” Inuyasha interjects, his hands clenches at his sides. “Until I met you, I never trusted a soul. But… you cried for my sake. You always stayed by my side. When I’m with you, I’m happy. You soothe my soul. But… I’m not supposed to be happy or have fun!”</p><p><em>Idiot</em>, Kagome thought quietly. <em>Everybody deserves to be happy</em>.</p><p>Inuyasha faltered as his voice rose. “Kikyo… Kikyo followed me in death. I must repay her with my death.”</p><p>Kagome has to smile at that. That’s so like him. It’s one of the reasons she loves him. It’s one of the reasons why he chose Kikyo over her. “I know. I can’t compete with Kikyo,” Kagome admits. “Because… I’m still alive.”</p><p>Yes. No one can compete with a dead lover, can they? Absence makes the heart and regret grow fonder, and what can be more absent than death? Even more so an absence that is now returned.</p><p>Inuyasha is quiet.</p><p>Kagome slumped over the edge of The Bone Eater’s Well. Her knees are weak.</p><p>“I’ve thought a lot about Kikyo, too.” Kagome said in a tone she hoped was light. “Kikyo and I are so different. Even the talk that I’m a reincarnation of Kikyo… But I’m not Kikyo. My heart belongs to me. But I’ve come to understand one thing about how Kikyo feels.”</p><p>Kagome has been looking down at the grass around her feet as she spoke. But she lifts her head for her next piece. She has to. “Something she and I share.” She says. “The desire to see you again.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>Inuyasha is taken aback.</p><p>This is it. Kami-sama, please give her strength.</p><p>“That’s why I conjured up the courage to come and see you.” Kagome smiled and looked Inuyasha in the eyes. Or… the eyebrows because she’s not that strong apparently. “I want to stay here, Inuyasha. With you and the others. The rest of Shinkon no Tama still needs to be gathered. There’s no neglecting my responsibility and right my wrong. I want to still be with the others. I want to be around you too. But, I let you go.”</p><p>“Eh?”</p><p>That seems to be the only response Inuyasha can come up with, which left plenty of speaking space for Kagome. Oh, well. Gift, mouth, horses, and all.</p><p>“You’ve chosen Kikyo, right?” Kagome bulldozes on. “I gathered as much. So, I’ve thought about it a lot. I still love you, Inuyasha. I don’t know when I will stop loving you, or if I ever would. But I will let you go now. It would be unfair of me to get between the both of you. I know Kikyo won’t approve of our romance. Not that I want to be a home wrecker, either.”</p><p>Kagome stopped speaking. She needs to catch a break. The most important pieces are said. There’s something enlightening in that, and something sad.</p><p>Inuyasha still seem unable to form a proper response. In a way, she feels a bad for him. He’s between a rock and a hard place, and is too emotionally constipated to be truly mature in resolving this relationship mess, not that handling relationship problems are ever easy for<em> anyone</em>. She’ll help him this time.</p><p>Kagome slides her hand to her back. Her fingers tangle together so the tremors won’t be as visible. Or as obvious, for her or anyone else. “So, Inuyasha,” Kagome’s voice trembled a little. <em>Just a little bit more</em>, she told herself inwardly. “Please help me.”</p><p>Kagome closes her eyes. Strength. Courage. She needs strength.</p><p>“Please be my friend. Don’t treat me special. Don’t help my feelings grow.”</p><p>Her eyes opens again, though they see nothing.</p><p>“Kagome,” Inuyasha began, but nothing seems to follow that word. Kagome wants to see how he looks, if he’s as torn and tortured as she is. If he regrets. If he wants to take his choice back and reverse it. If he would tell her he only loves her. That he now knows he’d rather choose Kagome over Kikyo. They’re foolish thoughts she wants to indulge in, but mustn’t.</p><p>“So what do you say, Inuyasha?” Kagome demands softly. She’s made her move. Now, it’s his turn. To be decisive and firm in his choice and what it entails.</p><p>Inuyasha was quiet for a while and none of them can bear looking at the other. But when he finally speaks, Inuyasha draws Kagome’s attention with a soft call of her name. She looks him in the eyes now. They’re glassy. Much like hers, probably. But the tears don’t fall.</p><p>“I will.” Inuyasha said simply. Heavily. Deeply. Like the way he is. “Thank you, Kagome.”</p><p>They both smile at each other. It’s a brittle, cracked thing that could still be mended with effort and time.</p><p>“And I’m sorry.”</p><p>She knows.</p><p>She is, too.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to make a whole reddit or tumblr post about this, but figured no one would be in that subreddit anymore. So, I backpedal to this place and made a fix-it instead.<br/>Okay, this fic was born from an internal rant after I decided to re-watch Inuyasha and got to episode 48. When I was young (like 10 or so), I thought Kagome handled the situation maturely and that Inuyasha was a jerk for still going after Kikyo, and that Kikyo was an annoying bedbug who should just stay away. Now, at 20-something, I saw the scenes in a different light with different point of view on all three characters.<br/>Kagome should've let Inuyasha go. A huge part of loving someone is letting them go. Insisting to stay was selfish. She knows Kikyo is not a big fan of a love triangle. Kagome may be able to stomach it, but it's unfair to expect that Kikyo will be okay with it too. Now that Inuyasha has made his choice, Kagome can't think about her relationship with Inuyasha as a two-way path anymore. The main link was between Inuyasha and Kikyo, the couple. Kagome is now the "other woman." Her asking Inuyasha to let her stay with him is asking him to cheat on Kikyo.<br/>I love Kagome, she's my favorite character in the show. She's strong and smart and relatively wise for her age, but is still a teenager (and barely hitting her twenties by the end of the story), so I can understand why she made the choice she did. Honestly, it was still kind of mature of her. She handled it calmly, but she was misguided (Mrs. Higurashi, your parenting needs a touch up. Seriously.)<br/>I wish Inuyasha would be firm and resolute in his choice. He tried to be, but was too scared to take the plunge. It's understandable, really. He really WAS between a rock and a hard place. But understandable doesn't make it right that he ultimately took the easy way. That easy way being not turning down Kagome. It's disrespectful to both Kagome and Kikyo. By accepting Kagome's plea, he betrayed the both of them whether they realize it or not.<br/>Kikyo doesn't want to share him. Inuyasha ignores this because he wants Kagome by his side too.<br/>Kagome is now a side chick, which is a degrading place. If Inuyasha truly respects and loves Kagome, he wouldn't want this place for a woman he loves.<br/>Alas, he's immature. Ugh.<br/>I realize that there are moments in the anime that do not exist in the manga, but I will use them anyway, because I really hate the way they handled this episode’s love triangle “resolution” in the anime (not a fan of the way it’s handled in the manga either, but at least it’s more bearable).<br/>Kikyo... Is a whole other rant and this note is already too long as it is.<br/>There is no hate from me to any of the three characters now. Only dismay that they wouldn’t resolve their problems in a mature way. I know that they’re still teenagers (at least in mind, in Inuyasha’s case), but it could be handled better.<br/>So, what do you think?<br/>This whole may be edited tomorrow. Or maybe not. Who knows. Not me.</p><p>Edit: Whoa, I did not expect to get any response at all, actually... OMG, thank you so much, guys!</p><p>The fix-it revolves only this chapter because if I want to fix their whole love story, it'll take too much time and causes too many changes. I really want to, though...</p><p>I also agree with some of y'all about how Inuyasha, but I didn't want to put them into the notes cause it's going to feel like Inuyasha bashing. Oh well...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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